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Alumni Association Symposium
"Globalization and Japan - Challenges from Social Changes"
(November 16, 2007)

On November 16, 2007, Alumni Association Symposium "Globalization and Japan - Challenges from Social Changes" was held at American University.

On November 17, there was an alumni general assembly meeting.

This symposium was organized by US-JSPS Fellows Alumni Association, American University, and JSPS Washington Office. (The detail of it was here.)

　

US-JSPS Fellows Alumni Association Leadership Meeting
(February 10, 2007)

On February 10, 2007, alumni members from all over the United States met in Washington, DC to discuss special topics related to the activities of the alumni association. Members of the Executive Committee, Science Group Coordinators, and former Executive Committee members convened the meeting.

In the morning, Executive Committee members met together with the staff of JSPS Washington Office. The topics at the morning meeting were about various alumni association business, such as the newsletter, bylaws, and guidelines for alumni symposia and annual meetings. With the input of JSPS Washington Office, the Executive Committee was able to construct a good plan of procedure for their activities.

Participants began to arrive for the Saturday meeting by noon. The Executive Committee wrapped up their morning meeting session and everyone joined in on a working-lunch. It was a good chance for alums to catch up with one another.

After lunch, the meeting began with an address by Arup Neogi, chair of the alumni association, and a few words of welcome from Akira Masaike, director of the JSPS Washington Office. Wael Zatar, vice-chair, made a few remarks and mentioned that the alumni association had gained one hundred new members in recent months!

After the announcements, the meeting began with some serious discussion among all attendees. The main topic of discussion for the day was drafting guidelines for both an alumni association science symposium and an annual meeting of alumni association members. After much discussion, by the end of the day, guidelines were successfully drawn up. Jan Zeserson, Northeast region representative to the Executive Committee, took down the official notes of the meeting. This report appears on the jspsusa.org website, and we encourage you all to read it.

Besides this important achievement at the meeting, other business was also accomplished. James Kuffner from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University proposed to lead a project to link the JSPS Washington Office alumni webpage to individual alumni web pages.

A reception followed the meeting in the evening. The reception was preceded by our keynote guest speaker, Anne Emig, program manager for Japan, National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Science and Engineering. She spoke about the latest news and information from NSF. After her presentation, alumni members took advantage of the chance to ask many questions. It was a very informative Q&A session. Afterwards, everyone joined for a lively social hour over dinner and a commemorative photo.

　

Scientific Groups Establishment Meeting
December 10 of 2005, Chicago, IL

In December 2005, thirty fellows from all over the United States gathered in Chicago to establish the Scientific Groups (SGs). This event was honored by the presence of the Directors of the JSPS Office in Washington DC, Prof Akira Masaike, and the Director the JSPS Office in San Francisco, Prof Seishi Takeda.

The Scientific Groups is one of the activity units of the Alumni. Fellows are guided to join the SGs of their preference according to their area of study/research. These groups were created to encourage fellows in close areas of research to know each other and establish collaborations.

In Chicago, the attendees had a Meishi exchange, introduced themselves, got acquainted and were warmly welcomed by the JSPS fellows who reside in Chicago Metropolitan area.

On that afternoon, the organization of these groups was explained and the participants actively provided their input. Some of the goals of the SGs are to: promote science among the fellows and the community, coordinate activities with the Executive Committee, collaborate with the newsletters’ team, maintain communication among the members, guide members to create scientific sub-groups according to their fields of research, etc.

The Scientific Groups categories and their coordinators and alternates are as follows:
Biology and Medical Sciences: Amanda Persaad and Yurong Lai
Chemistry: Abhijit Sarkar and Chris Palmer
Engineering: Hui Hu and Guodong Zheng
Physics and Math: Arup Neogi and Anil Patnaik
Social Sciences and Humanities: Dajin Peng and Louis Esparza

JSPS Alumni Association Launched in the US
(September 2004)

On 25 September, a meeting was convened of the preparatory committee's executive board to formally establish the US JSPS Fellows Alumni Association.

On 13 March, 34 former JSPS fellows had met to set up the preparatory committee for establishing an alumni association in the United States. At that meeting, they divided the US into five regions and elected a representative from each. These five people formed the executive board of the preparatory committee. From among them were elected the board's chair and vice-chair.

This time, a quorum of four board members met at JSPS's Washington Office. At the meeting, opening remarks were delivered by the chair Dr. Blanca Chattin-Kacouris and a welcome message was given by newly appointed Washington Office director Prof. Akira Masaike. A discussion followed on the formulation of the alumni group's new articles of association.

The Washington Office had prepared a draft of the articles of association and previously circulated it to the board members, who in turn forwarded the draft and an inquiry to former fellows in their respective regions. The members, then, brought the results of those inquiries with them to the September preparatory meeting. At the meeting, they engaged in a lively exchange of views on the content and wording of each article. Through this earnest discussion, which ended up extending the scheduled meeting time, a consensus was ultimately reached. The articles of association established the name of the association, its objects, its nation-wide organization, membership eligibility, and executive committee composition. It also mandated that the executive board of the preparatory committee would, without alteration, be the executive committee of the association upon its inauguration.

As the new executive committee, the members then turned their attention to organizing a symposium to kick off the new association's menu of activities. It was decided to get started with preparations for holding the symposium within the year and to invite a guest speaker from Japan to address it.

Finally, a ceremony, held in the presence of Prof. Masaike, formally established the US JSPS Fellows Alumni Association through the signing by the executive committee members of its just-agreed-upon articles of association.

This meeting, held from beginning to end in a spirited yet amicable atmosphere, was also attended by the staffs of JSPS's Washington and San Francisco Offices

The members of the association's executive committee are as follows:

  • Dr. Blanca Chattin-Kacouris (chair, Midwest)

  • Dr. Wael Zatar, West Virginia University Institute of Technology (vice-chair, Southeast)

  • Dr. Rezwanul Wahid, University of Maryland, Baltimore (Northeast)

  • Dr. Daniel Weeks, Los Alamos National Laboratory (Southwest)

  • Dr. Roger M. Jones, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (West)